Washing Away Pain with Love
by Animecartoonlover36
Summary: Kotori, who thinks she's useless, falls into a state of depression. Can a certain boy help her cheer up? Read to find out.


Washing Away Pain with Love

Hey everyone! Here's another short story I wanted to write out. I hope I did okay and that you enjoy it! Anyway, I don't own Yuma, Kotori, and the other Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal characters. I also don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. P.S. Italics are thought bubbles.

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><p>It was another ordinary day like usual. Everyone was chattering happily among their friends while walking to class. The only person who wasn't was Kotori. Her usual cheeriness was gone and replaced with gloominess. In the past few days, her happiness disappeared and sadness had replaced it. She carefully made sure that Takashi, Cathy, Tokunosuke, Tetsuo, and Yuma didn't notice the change in her personality. But still, it got harder and harder to convince them for each passing day.<p>

As Kotori walked through the hallway to her class, she felt a strange feeling in her chest. _"What is this feeling? It hurts…" _she wondered. She just shrugged it off and walked into her class. When she got near her seat, she noticed Yuma was already in his. She grabbed her chair and dropped onto it. "Good morning, Kotori! It's another day to Kattobingu!" Yuma greeted her, smiling. Kotori only nodded a little and looked away.

Yuma's smiling face turned confused when Kotori didn't respond back. _"That's strange. Kotori always greets me back cheerfully. Did something happen?" _Yuma asked himself, curious. He was about to ask Kotori what was wrong when their teacher walked into the classroom. "I'm sorry for being late. Let's start class now." the teacher explained, picking up his book. _"It looks like I have to ask her later." _Yuma grumbled, annoyed.

During class, Kotori was taking notes on the lesson. She took a quick glance at Yuma and sighed. Apparently, Yuma had fallen asleep in class again. _"Yuma, when are you going to stop sleeping in class?" _Kotori muttered. She was about to shake him awake when she stopped. As Kotori stared at Yuma's sleeping form, the feeling in her chest got a bit stronger. "Yuma…" she whispered, clutching her chest. She quickly turned back to her notes and started to write again.

After class ended, everyone rushed outside to duel. Kotori also quickly rushed out before Yuma could wake up. After she left the classroom, Tetsuo noticed Yuma still sleeping and paced over. "Yuma! Wake up or you're going to miss the dueling!" Tetsuo yelled. Yuma jumped up from his chair and yawned. "Okay! I'm coming…" Yuma told him. As they headed toward the dueling area outside, Yuma was thinking of someone.

"_Why didn't Kotori wake me up? She always does that whenever class is over. Okay, what's going on with her? First, she didn't even greet me back. Second, she didn't wake me up like usual. There's something wrong with her and I got to find out." _Yuma thought. When they reached the duel area, they spotted Kotori watching some people duel. Yuma and Tetsuo hurried over to Kotori and stopped. "Hi Kotori. How are you?" Tetsuo asked, grinning.

"I'm okay." Kotori told them. She then gave the two a small smile. Tetsuo didn't notice her smile wavering but Yuma did. _"Kotori…" _Yuma murmured. "Well then, I'm going to duel now. See you guys later." Tetsuo said, dashing away. After Tetsuo left, Yuma started to look for an opponent to duel with. He suddenly turned around and faced Kotori. "Kotori, is there something wrong? You've been acting weird today." Yuma explained, worried.

"_Oh no, he's suspicious!" _Kotori realized, her eyes widening. "Nothing's wrong! I'm just feeling a bit tired, that's all." she lied. Yuma looked at her suspiciously for a few seconds but then started to smile. "Okay then. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Come on! Let's go find an opponent!" Yuma said happily. Kotori nodded and walked beside him. _"Was Yuma worried about me?" _Kotori wondered. _"No, he probably was just curious." _she told herself.

"Hey you!" a voice suddenly called out. Yuma and Kotori turned towards the sound and spotted a young boy. "Do you want to duel me?" the boy asked, taking out his deck. "Sure! I can't pass a challenge!" Yuma cried out, excited. "Duel disk, set!" they both yelled out, their duel disks unfolding. "D-Gazer, set!" they both shouted. The boy, Yuma, and Kotori then placed their D-Gazers on their left eyes. "Duel!" they said.

During the duel, Kotori was watching at the sidelines. Suddenly, the strange feeling got stronger again. _"It's getting stronger…what's going on?" _Kotori wondered. "Yes, I won!" Yuma cheered. Kotori looked back at the duel and noticed Yuma jumping happily. The boy sighed and walked towards Yuma. "That was a great duel. Let's duel again sometime." the boy told him while holding out his hand. Yuma shook his hand and smiled. "Yeah. I'm sure we will duel again next time." Yuma said. The boy nodded and began to walk away.

Suddenly, the school bell started to ring. When Yuma and Kotori heard the bell, they started to walk to their lockers. "Hey Kotori, want to walk home with me?" Yuma asked, facing her. "Sure, why not?" Kotori answered, nodding slightly. They then departed to their lockers. After Kotori packed up her backpack, she quickly proceeded outside and started to wait for Yuma. Suddenly, the strange feeling started again and made Kotori gasp a bit. She couldn't take it anymore. Even though she was supposed to wait for Yuma, she quickly dashed away from the school.

She kept on running until she reached the park. She stopped near one of the lamp-posts and dropped her backpack onto the ground. Her eyes began to water with tears. Many thoughts appeared into her mind. Kotori finally knew what the strange feeling that she had been feeling for days was. It was the feeling of being useless.

Meanwhile, back at the school, Yuma finally came outside. He looked around but couldn't find Kotori. _"Huh? Where is she?" _Yuma wondered, confused. He turned towards Tetsuo and asked, "Hey, have you seen Kotori?" Tetsuo shook his head side to side. "No, I haven't. Maybe she left already." he suggested. _"Hmm…I better go check Kotori's house to see if she's there." _Yuma decided. He waved goodbye to Tetsuo and began to walk to Kotori's house. As he was walking past the park, he spotted something pink and white.

He quickly stopped walking and turned towards the park. _"Wait a minute. That's the color of the girls' school uniform! Could that be…Kotori?" _Yuma wondered. He dashed to the area and found Kotori standing near the lamp-post. "Kotori, what are you doing here?" he asked her. Kotori didn't respond and just lifted up her head. Yuma was startled to see Kotori crying. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" he asked again, worried. Kotori just ignored his question.

"Yuma, do you know how it feels to be…useless?" she murmured quietly. Yuma was too surprised to respond so Kotori kept on talking. "I've been thinking these past days, about how everyone duels and about the Numbers cards. Why can't I duel? I'm in a dueling school so why can't I duel like everyone else?" she asked. Yuma finally snapped out of his phase. "Well, not everyone has to duel, you know. Everyone has different things they want to do." Yuma answered back.

"Yeah, I know. But still, I feel so useless though! You've been fighting for these Numbers cards and I can't do anything to help you! I can't do anything but stand at the sidelines watching. I'm just so useless!" Kotori cried out, tears running down her cheeks. "Kotori…" Yuma whispered. He frowned and tightened his hand into a fist. He then suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. Kotori eyes widened and her cheeks flushed pink as she felt him embrace her into a hug.

Suddenly, it started to rain hard, soaking the both of them. "Kotori, you're not useless. Please don't call yourself that. Even though you don't duel, you still help me. You help me feel happy when you're always by my side. You make everyone cheerful and you're great at many things. I don't want to see you sad, Kotori. I love the things you do, so cheer up!" Yuma explained, smiling. Kotori stared at him, surprised. She then began to smile really cheerfully. "Yuma…thank you." she told him, hugging him back. "Come on. Let's go home." Yuma said, joyfully. Kotori nodded and the two started to walk home, hand in hand.

Behind them, Astral was floating near them. "Observation #19: Love is like the rain. It washes away pain from hearts." he concluded, staring at the couple. Astral's observation was right. The rain of love had definitely washed away the fire of pain.

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><p>Well, that's that for this story. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that I can write more Yuma x Kotori stories soon. Please review and bye!<p> 


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